KOLKATA: The West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday submitted an affidavit before the Calcutta High Court saying withdrawal of nominations for the upcoming panchayat polls slated to be held on July 8 had been much lesser compared to the previous rural polls in 2018.
The state poll panel also said the number of valid nominations is also much higher this time.
The SEC submitted the affidavit following a directive of the high court. The court issued the directive while hearing a petition of Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress of flexing muscles to force opposition candidates to withdraw nominations.
In the affidavit, the SEC mentioned that 9.03 per cent of valid nominations were withdrawn in this year’s panchayat elections while the figure was 17.65 per cent in the previous rural polls.
The Commission also said the number of nominations increased this time significantly. According to the affidavit, in this panchayat election, the Commission received 2,28,158 valid nominations while the figure was 1,33,633 in the 2018 panchayat elections. In 2018, a total of 23,619 nominations were withdrawn and in this electoral exercise, 20,612 candidates have withdrawn their candidature.
The BJP, the principal opposition of TMC, refused to accept the SEC’s figure. “The total figure of withdrawn nominations doesn’t reflect the real scenario of violence unleashed by the TMC. “The statistics don’t disclose the real story behind the withdrawal of candidature. Thousands of our candidates were forced to withdraw their candidature,” said BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya.
CPI(M)’s central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said if the SEC submits such figures without revealing the real picture, then it is unfortunate.
The Commission also informed the court that it received 754 complaints of irregularities during the nomination submission process and it ordered a thorough investigation in each of these cases.
The state poll panel also informed the division bench of Chief Justice T S Shivagnanam of the high court that the sensitive booths have been identified on the basis of experience in past rural polls. The SEC also said that as per the directive of the Kolkata High Court, the CCTV footage of all polling booths would be preserved.
Violence during the nomination filing drew the attention of the Kolkata High Court and it had ordered to deploy central forces across the state in the rural polls which were challenged by the state poll panel in the Supreme Court but the Apex court did not entertain the SEC’s plea.